AUCOTEAM’s collaboration with various energy service providers led to the development of a scalable system solution that processes a wide variety of data protocols, thereby enabling the integration and control of energy generation and distribution facilities. The reliable provision of process data on balancing power is a fundamental prerequisite for the stability and future viability of energy grids.
Successful completion of the relocation
AUCOTEAM has been working closely for many years with 50Hertz Transmission GmbH, a leading transmission system operator in Germany. As part of the relocation of the Berlin main control center from its historic site in Marzahn to the new headquarters at Berlin Central Station, not only were modern architectural and energy standards met, but the telecontrol technology supplied and maintained by AUCOTEAM, as well as central hardware components, were also successfully relocated.
The new “Transmission Control Center” (TCC) in Neuenhagen near Berlin now controls the entire extra-high-voltage grid in eastern and northern Germany. The previous emergency control room in Berlin-Marzahn was integrated into the new redundancy concept and relocated to the company headquarters.
Due to the high demands placed on the process interface level and hot-standby operation, the relocation of the system-critical hardware had to be carried out extremely efficiently while adhering to safety-related restrictions. After just four hours, the most critical systems and telecontrol connections were back online, ensuring that process automation continues to run smoothly.
The hardware and firmware developed by AUCOTEAM demonstrated the highest levels of reliability and security under the demanding conditions of a redundancy failure, without any significant interruptions during the restoration of redundancy.
Entry into the lucrative balancing energy market
AUCOTEAM also has a long-standing partnership with Envia THERM GmbH, an energy supplier for the distribution network operator EnviaM GmbH. The increasing use of renewable energies and the possibility of targeted control of small power plants (such as CHP plants, solar plants, biogas plants and wind turbines) sparked the desire to participate in the lucrative balancing energy market.
AUCOTEAM developed a system for the schedule-based distribution of the secondary control power requested by the transmission system operator 50Hertz, which was expanded from an initial three plants to 24. Smaller power plants that cannot participate directly in the balancing energy market due to legal and technical restrictions are bundled into virtual technical units (virtual power plants)—each group of 100 small plants thus gains shared market access.
These virtual power plants are already successfully active as providers of balancing energy in the SRL distribution system. The systems are continuously being further developed to offer operators maximum flexibility in changing market conditions. Newly added functions enable schedule-based control of small generators as well as their bundling into sub-pools—both of which improve marketing strategies and expand market access for energy producers.
Conclusion
The requirements for transmission and distribution system operators are undergoing fundamental changes due to the energy transition. With innovative process automation and scalable system solutions, AUCOTEAM makes decisive contributions to ensuring the stability and efficiency of tomorrow’s energy systems.
